SPRING & FALL · 5 MIN READ
How to plant a shrub so it survives its first winter
Most shrubs that die in year one die from how they were planted, not from cold.
Dig the hole twice as wide as the pot and exactly as deep. Not deeper. The single commonest killing mistake is planting too deep, which buries the root flare and slowly rots the stem.
Take the plant out of the pot and look at the roots. If they are circling the outside of the rootball, tease them apart — genuinely tear them if you have to. A circling root system will strangle the plant in about five years and you will never know why it died.
Backfill with the soil you dug out. Do not fill the hole with bagged triple mix. Roots that hit a wall of native clay at the edge of a bowl of lovely compost will simply turn around and keep circling.
Water it in as you backfill, not just at the end, so the soil settles around the roots rather than leaving air pockets.
Mulch 5 to 8 cm deep, and keep it clear of the stem by a good hand's width. Mulch piled against bark holds moisture against it and invites rot and voles.
Then water it. Deeply, once a week, for the whole first season, including through September and October — a shrub that goes into winter with dry roots is the one that does not come back.
Written for zone 5 in Simcoe County. If you garden somewhere colder, on sand, or in a frost pocket, come and ask — the answer changes.